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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A Eurasian bird (Corvus monedula) related to and resembling the crows, having black plumage with a gray nape and underparts.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The common daw of Europe, Corvus monedula, an oscine passerine bird of the family Corvidæ. It is one of the smallest of crows, being but 13 inches long. It is of a black color, with a blue or metallic reflection. Jackdaws in flocks frequent church steeples, deserted chimneys, old towers, and ruins. where they build their nests. They may readily be tamed and taught to imitate the sounds of words. They are common throughout Europe.
  2. n. The boat-tailed grackle, Quiscalus major, a large long-tailed blackbird of the family Agelæidæ. Coues.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A European bird of the crow family (Corvus monedula), often nesting in church towers and ruins.
  2. n. A Daurian jackdaw, a closely related Asian bird (Corvus dauuricus).

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Zoöl.) See daw, n.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. common black-and-grey Eurasian bird noted for thievery

Etymologies

  1. Compound of jack and daw The first element, also present in Low German Kajak, (North Saxon) Jöker "jackdaw", may refer either to its characteristic call, often represented as tchak-tchak, or to the name Jack. The second element means "jackdaw" in itself, from Old English dāƿe, and is cognate with German Dohle. (Wiktionary)

Examples

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Lists

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Comments

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  • tbtabby Features in the shortest possible sentence that includes every letter of the alphabet: "Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz." Unless someone out there knows a shorter one. Nov 8, 2012

  • brtom "We are considerably out of pocket over this bally pressman johnny, this jackdaw of Rheims, who has not even been to a university."
    Joyce, Ulysses, 15 Feb 5, 2007

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‘jackdaw’ has been looked up 2353 times, loved by 1 person, added to 21 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 24.